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A few weeks ago I wrote about the time women and others who are easily harassed in the workplace waste after encountering sexual harassment. Today I’m writing about some of the risks—both perceived and real—that a victim of sexual harassment faces when considering whether or not to speak up. As Rebecca Traister writes in her article, “This Moment Isn’t (Just) About Sex. It’s Really About Work.”, we must not lose the greatest context that this #metoo moment represents: workplace experiences are unequal based on gender.
For someone considering speaking up about being sexually harassed, her act of speaking threatens to expose the deep flaws of gender-based power structures. However, this brave and powerful act is juxtaposed by the risks she takes by speaking at all. If her words are not taken seriously, they are actually used to reinforce the very stereotypes that put her in a position to be harassed in the first place.
This list is both what women risk being seen as if they speak up about sexual harassment, and coincidentally, it's also the list of what women are constantly risking being seen as in their everyday public lives. So here we go. Women are risking, whether they are speaking up about sexual harassment, or just being themselves, being seen as:
- too emotional
- confusing emotions with work
- unable to manage stress
- distracted
- unfit
- too serious
- misreading a friendly encounter
- making nothing into something
- looking for the bad guy in the dramatic feminist reading of her life
- anti-men (whatever that means)
- untrustworthy
- not a team player
- a poor performer
- insubordinate
- being silenced
Have thoughts about the intersection of #metoo and the far broader problem of women not being taken seriously at work? Share with us in the comments below.